Cambodia vows fierce fight against Thailand in escalating border conflict

Cambodias powerful Senate President Hun Sen on Tuesday vowed that his country would carry out a fierce fight against Thailand as a second day of widespread renewed combat between the Southeast Asian neighbours drove tens of thousands of people to flee border areasFighting broke out following a skirmish in which one Thai soldier was killed Sunday night despite a ceasefire that ended five days of fighting in July over competing territorial claims along their border which resulted in dozens of civilian and military dead on both sides and the evacuation of over 100000 civiliansBoth sides vow to keep fightingIn a statement posted to Facebook and Telegram Hun Sen claimed that his country had refrained from firing back on Monday but overnight began to shoot back at Thai forcesHe wrote that a strategy of concentrating on where Thailand was advancing would allow Cambodia to to weaken and destroy enemy forces through counterattacksThailands army said Cambodian forces had fired artillery at a village in Sa Kaeo province early Tuesday morning though the strike caused no casualtiesThailand says that Cambodian forces also fired at its troops Sunday and Monday as each side blames the other for firing the first shotsCambodia wants peace but Cambodia is forced to fight back to defend its territory Hun Sen saidHun Sen was Cambodias longserving prime minister until 2023 when he was succeeded by his son Hun Manet but is still widely seen as the countrys de facto leaderCambodias military announced Tuesday that the new fighting had killed seven civilians and wounded 20A spokesperson for the Thai military announced Tuesday that one solder had been killed and 29 wounded in the new fightingSpeaking at a news conference Thai Rear Adm Surasant Kongsiri said the navy was strengthening its position in eastern Thailand near the border with CambodiaThailand on Monday carried out airstrikes along the frontier which it said were a defensive action targeting military installationsSurasant said such operation would continue until attacks stopVillagers on both sides flee to safetyA separate statement from Thailands 2nd Army Region situated along the border said almost 500 temporary shelters have been set up in four border provinces accommodating 125838 people Additional refugees from the fighting are expected to stay with relatives in safe areasIt said Cambodia attacked Thai positions with rocket and drone attacksCambodia said people fled villages near the borderThai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Monday in a televised speech that military operations would be carried out as necessary to defend the country and protect public safetyThailand has never wished for violence Id like to reiterate that Thailand has never initiated a fight or an invasion but will never tolerate a violation of its sovereignty he saidThe two nations have a history of ill willThailand and Cambodia have a history of enmity over centuries and experience periodic tensions along their land border of more than 800 kilometers 500 milesThe ceasefire that was agreed to end Julys fighting was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from US President Donald Trump who threatened to withhold trade privileges from the two nations unless they agreed to itA more detailed agreement signed in October called for removing heavy weapons and equipment from the border desisting from disseminating false information accusations and harmful rhetoric implementing measures to restore mutual trust and full diplomatic relations and coordinating operations to remove land minesNone of these actions appear to have been implemented in full or in good faith by either sideAfter the ceasefire both nations continued to fight a bitter propaganda war using disinformation alongside minor outbreaks of crossborder violencePrisoners and land mines have been sticky issuesA major Cambodian complaint has been that Thailand continues to hold 18 prisoners taken prisoner when the ceasefire became activeThailand accuses Cambodia of laying new land mines in the areas under dispute in several cases maiming Thai soldiersCambodia says the mines are left over from decades of civil war that ended in 1999The mines issue caused Thailand to declare earlier this month that it was indefinitely pausing implementation of the details of the ceasefire until Cambodia apologized for the UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the new fighting especially the use of air strikes and heavy weapons and called on the warring parties to recommit to the ceasefireThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever